Oldboy (2013)

Oldboy Synopsis

Oldboy is a provocative, visceral thriller that follows the story of an advertising executive (Josh Brolin) who is abruptly kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his bizarre and torturous punishment only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.

I'll be recapping the highs and lows of the movie business experienced over the past 12 months. 2013 has been a pretty fascinating time for film, full of reversals of fortune, dizzying successes and even some truly polarizing pictures. So let's look back and GIF out!

While my anticipation for Spike Lee’s upcoming Oldboy remake is just slightly higher than my anticipation for his Kickstarted Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, I really have to give it to the guys creating the film’s posters.

This latest featurette appeals to those who crave a mesmerizing performance, by showing all the work Oldboy star Josh Brolin had to do behind the scenes to go from schlubby mess of a man to a lean and mean man on a mission.

Spike Lee's Oldboy remake may look alarmingly similar to the Korean original. It may require its own screenwriter to defend its existence in front of a Comic Con crowd. But if the movie has anything going for it over the 2003 Park Chan-wook original, it's Elizabeth Olsen. And good for them for recognizing that and highlighting her in this newly released clip

The film begins as a man named Joe Doucett (Brolin) is kidnapped and held prisoner for two decades. One day he wakes up in a trunk outside and discovers that he has been released, which leads him on not only a mission of revenge against the person responsible for his kidnapping, but also a mission to discover why he was imprisoned in the first place.

What does it mean when a film changes release date? Nothing, and everything, depending on how you look at it and what that change is. So you can choose to read nothing into the fact that Spike Lee's Oldboy has changed release dates from a planned October 25 bow to November 27, a full month-long switch that puts Oldboy in the thick of some serious competition.

That's Brolin climbing out of the trunk, looking mighty clean-cut and purposeful for someone who has just broken out of a 20-year solitary confinement. And we assume that's Elizabeth Olsen standing in the background, holding a yellow umbrella with the hash marks that have been part of the marketing from the very beginning-- Olsen plays the young woman who helps Brolin's character in his quest to find out why he was imprisoned

The key to a good teaser poster is to give only a hint of what you've got in store. When you're bringing a remake or a sequel, that hint can be incredibly small, just a quick tip of the hat to fans and a placeholder for what's to come. That's exactly the tactic for this teaser poster for Oldboy, Spike Lee's remake of the modern Korean classic that's coming to theaters on October 11. Those hash marks add up to 20

It’s a four hour drive to get from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, a trip that’s composed entirely of long stretches of highway that extend through the deserts of the south west. And once again we have braved the heat and the sand paving the way to this year’s CinemaCon.

With Spike Lee's remake of the Korean revenge classic Oldboy going into production, we've still got plenty of questions about how his take on the material will compare to Park Chan-wook's original-- and we're confident that, no matter what Lee does, some fanboys out there will just hate it regardless. But now all those fans will at least know how much time they have to sharpen their knives

What's bad news for Parker is good news for James Ransone, who will take his place in the chilling remake. Like Parker, Ransone has worked with Lee before, first on 2006's Inside Man, and most recently on Red Hook Summer. To date, Ransone might be most recognizable from his various roles on HBO series like The Wire, but he can currently be seen in theaters as the eager investigator dubbed Deputy So-and-So in Scott Derrickson's latest horror thriller Sinister.

"It's not trying to redo the [Chan-wook's] film – it's coming at it from a different point of view. As well as focusing on the primary source of the Korean film, for our film there's also the Japanese Manga, so we're using the primary source of the illustrated novel, really."

The upstart distributor, which previously brought you the surprise hit Insidious and the arty favorite Drive, announced today that they have picked up the United States distribution rights to Oldboy, which they say is set for an expected 2013 release date. They also included a synopsis that gives us some hints at how this new version of the story will differ from the original

With small roles in the Spike Lee-directed Red Hook Summer and the Spike Lee-produced Red Tails, Nate Parker has been emerging this year as a star to watch, but also apparently one of Spike Lee's favorites. Parker is now set to reunite with the director for a third time, taking a small role in Oldboy

An anonymous source would not elaborate on Jacksons’ involvement in the picture, though the Times elaborates that Sam would play a villain who is brutally tortured by Josh Brolin’s character – a man who has been detained by mysterious adversaries for years with no explanation.

The search for an actor to play a villain has been a tough one. Many great names have been asked to join the production, but each one of them turned it down due to scheduling or other reasons. At one point or another we reported that Christian Bale, Colin Firth and Clive Owen were all offered and then rejected offers. The search, however, is over now that Sharlto Copley has officially signed on.

After many, many months of trying to get a cast together, Spike Lee may have finally found someone to play the villain in his remake of Oldboy. Josh Brolin has long been attached to play the lead originated by Min-sik Choi, and Martha Marcy May Marlene star Elizabeth Olsen has agreed to play the female lead.

Spike Lee's Oldboy remake hasn't had the easiest time finding its female lead so far. While the situation is even worse on the villain side (Christian Bale, Colin Firth and Clive Owen have all turned down the part), both Rooney Mara and Mia Wasikowska were given the chance to play in the film but have turned it down. Now a third actress has entered the arena, but will this one actually stick?

So while the role seems open again, who do you want to play the villain facing off against Brolin? Are there any English-speaking actors who can match the original? And don't say you want them to scrap the film entirely-- it might not be the most popular opinion, but this remake is still looking interesting

I wonder if the Korean director guided Wasikowska toward Lee’s project? She’s a fabulous actress who quietly shattered souls in Jane Eyre opposite Michael Fassbender and managed to be one of the bets things about Tim Burton’s bizarre Alice In Wonderland. But I’d never think of her for Oldboy, which means it could be a brilliant stroke of stunt casting.

It's never great to be the third choice to do something, but I'd imagine it's a whole lot worse when the entire world knows that you are the third choice. In the past few months, the role of the villain in Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy has been offered to both Christian Bale and Colin Firth, both of whom ended up turning the part down.

With the exception of Josh Brolin, who is set to play the film's lead, Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy is having a bit of trouble finding actors to fill the other roles. In recent months we've heard stories about both Christian Bale and Rooney Mara being offered the villain and female lead roles, respectively, but both ended up turning the offers down.

One of the most controversial upcoming remakes currently in development is the American-made version of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy. While the project has been in the works for years, originally going to be directed by Steven Spielberg and star Will Smith, the project has been revived in recent months, with Spike Lee officially set to direct and Josh Brolin attached to star. But how will the new movie connect to the South Korean original? Producer Roy Lee has cleared up some of those questions.

I feel I say this every time I write up a story about the Oldboy remake, but here it goes again: I still don't understand why they are making this movie, but at least they are putting in every effort to make sure that it's the best movie they can make. The quality of actors that they're going for is off the charts, however, I do still have my reservations about Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, The Cell) writing the script.

The Korean revenge flick by Park Chan-wook has become a cult classic over the years, so it's no surprise that Hollywood wants to wring the life out of it as a remake. If it has to be remade, Lee is almost certainly a better fit than Spielberg and, God help us, Will Smith. The casting has also been pretty solid so far, suggesting that if the remake fails or flounders, it won't be for lack of talent on hand. It won't, however, be in the company of Rooney Mara.

Come late December you can expect Rooney Mara to skyrocket into the A-list. While it was big enough news last year when it was announced that she would be playing Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's English-language remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, all signs are pointing to her becoming a must-have name when the movie comes out at the end of the year.

Lee directs from his own screenplay about an Atlanta resident who spends a memorable summer in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. The filmmaker also plans to revive his character of Mookie from his seminal, Oscar-nominated work Do the Right Thing, which came out in 1989

Winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Eyes tells a mystery that spans generations as a retired legal counselor continues to investigate a case the plagued him when he was young, inexperienced, and in love with his female supervisor. Ray can handle the material – his Shattered Glass was damn-near flawless – particularly with Washington as a collaborator.

Back in 2008 it was rumored that Steven Spielberg was planning a remake of ark Chan-wook's Oldboy starring none-other-than Will Smith. In the years since the project fell apart and both Spielberg and Smith took their names off the list. With the project once again up and running under Spike Lee's direction, however, it now seems that one of Smith's Men In Black III co-stars has taken his place.

Though he's been playing Batman since 2005, Christian Bale has not allowed himself to be identified solely by character. Though his performances as the Dark Knight have been incredibly memorable, Bale has also put on stellar performances in movies like The Prestige, 3:10 To Yuma and The Fighter in the time since (the last in the list giving him his first Academy Award).

Brolin is likely on a list that includes any number of eligible, A or B-list actors who can hold their own in action. The character, named Dae-su Oh in the original Korean film but of course to be renamed here, is sent to prison for mysterious reasons at the beginning of the film

What I love about them choosing Spike Lee isn't that it guarantees a good or bad adaptation of Park Chan-wook's original film, but one that's completely unique; there's no way Lee will turn in the generic American remake you would have feared from Spielberg and Smith

I truly don't understand why this needs to happen. In the eight years since the film's initial release it has spread rapidly through word of mouth, has reached the rank of #95 on IMDb's Top 250 and is available for anyone to watch on Netflix instant. Why in hell do we need an English language version of this movie?

Warner Bros. has picked up the rights for an English-language remake of Sympathy for Mr. Vengenace, a Park film that's kind of a spiritual successor to Oldboy without being a sequel. It's considered part of his "vengeance trilogy"

Fans of the original Park Chan-wook film are probably dancing in the streets with joy right now, and who can blame them? A seminal, violent, envelope-pushing film was going to be remade as some kind of Hollywood blockbuster

All I can say is thank whatever deity you may believe in. Over the last few months, details have begun to leak regarding production of the American remake of Oldboy. Spielberg on board to direct. Will Smith vehicle